Gabrius nidicola ( Bernhauer, 1921 ) Bernhauer, 1921

Maus, Mariana Chani-Posse De, 2009, Revision of some types of Philonthus Stephens and Gabrius Stephens from southern South America (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), with nomenclatural notes, Zootaxa 2034, pp. 31-42 : 34

Gabrius nidicola ( Bernhauer, 1921) , comb. nov.

Philonthus nidicola "Bernhauer in litt."; Bruch, 1915: 445 (catalog). Nomen nudum.

Philonthus nidicola Bernhauer, 1921: 108 ; Scheerpeltz, 1933: 1352 (catalog); Blackwelder, 1944: 134 (list); Herman, 2001: 2889 (catalog); Chani-Posse, 2004: 231 (list).

Type material. Lectotype (here designated; Fig. 4), 3, with labels: “Rep. ARGENTINA / Prov. Buenos Aires / 17.X.1919 / C. Bruch”, “Monte Veloz / 17.X.1919 / ex nido Ctenomys ”, “ nidicola Bernh. / Typus ” (yellow label), “Chicago NHMus. / M. Bernhauer Collection”, “ Lectotype Philonthus nidicola Bernhauer, 1921 / Des. Chani-Posse de Maus 2008” ( FMNH). Paralectotype: Ƥ, with labels: “Rep. ARGENTINA / Prov. Buenos Aires / 17.X.1919 / C. Bruch”, “189”, “ nidicola Bernh. / Cotypus” (yellow label), “Chicago NHMus. / M. Bernhauer Collection”, “ Paralectotype Philonthus nidicola Bernhauer, 1921 / Des. Chani-Posse de Maus 2008” ( FMNH).

Notes. Although references about the type locality and a male character are given in the original description, there is no indication about how many specimens were examined. Of them, the male individual is the lectotype hereby designated because Bernhauer explicitly referred to the locality (Monte Veloz) where this specimen was collected in the original description. The two specimens here studied agree with the description by Bernhauer (1921).

Discussion. My examination of the type material of P. argentinus , P. jujuyensis , P. hornaditanus , P. nidicola and P. tucumanensis established that these five species do not belong to the genus Philonthus but belong to the genus Gabrius . In Smetana’s (1995) key to Holarctic genera of Philonthina , these species will go to couplet 13, where they share with Gabrius the “first four segments of front tarsus with ventral face bearing only regular, unmodified marginal setae; each simple, not dilated”, “lateral puncture of pronotum, bearing long seta, situated close to superior line of pronotal hypomeron, separated from it by distance about equal to diameter of puncture” and the “last segment of labial palpus slender, distinctly narrower than preceding segment”. Although P. argentinus , P. jujuyensis , and P. nidicola do not share with Gabrius “the sternite 9 of male genital segment with proximal portion not reduced, symmetrical”, an exception for this character state ( G. brevipennis Horn, 1884 ) is observed in that same key. Concerning P. hornaditanus and P. t u c u m a n e n s i s, I was able to confirm (in the case of P. tucumanensis from additional non-type material) that these species share with Gabrius the sternite 9 with proximal portion symmetrical. In addition, all these five species, P. argentinus , P. jujuyensis , P. hornaditanus , P. nidicola and P. tucumanensis , share with Gabrius all other characters summarized by Smetana (1995: 606) for the recognition of the species of this genus.